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T O P I C R E V I E W

Ruth Tiedemann

Rene wrote a newspaper column for one of the Houston papers (I believe the Chronicle) during the time she and Scott lived in the NASA area. After they left there, she co-hosted a television show in Baltimore. I admired her and her work immensely, especially her sensitive writing, and I've always wanted to tell her so.

KSCartist

Well Ruth-

If you scan the posts in this message board, you'll see that the very lovely daughter of Rene and Scott also posts here.

If you email her via the address posted with her name, I'm sure she could relay your compliments to her Mother or possibly help you do so yourself.

Any thoughts on this Kris?

Tim

KC Stoever

Yep. Thanks for the assist, Tim!

Ruth, I was visiting with my mom, Rene, just today, and can tell you (1) that she's in fine fettle and (2) she would love to hear from you. I well remember her syndicated colulmn, "A Woman Still," kind of a proto-feminist / retro perfect-wife- and-mother column that today would appear on an op-ed page but then was relegated to the Women's section. Her TV show, which ran for about seven years in the 1970s was produced out of CBS affiliate WTOP in Washington, DC, which was owned by the Washington Post.

You can find my email address on my cS profile (click on the something or other), and I can arrange the rest. Thanks very much for your nice words about Rene.

Ruth Tiedemann

First, thank you Tim! Yes, I realized from reading various posts that one of the Carpenter children was online. But we were good friends with several astronaut families back then and I remember how hard we tried to protect them from excesses by the public and the press. I felt it best to leave the choice to the Carpenter family as to whether or not I should make that contact.

Kris, thank you so very much for asking your Mom for me. As soon as I figure out which buttons to press to find your e-mail address, you'll hear from me. If I can't figure it out, I'll post mine here.

FutureAstronaut

Push the button that looks like an envelope. It is above Ms. Stoever's post, to the right of the date.

------------------Mike

Ruth Tiedemann

I figured it out, Mike, and have already heard from Kris. Thanks so much for your help, though.

SCE to AUX

Kris,

Do you have any of Rene's TV Shows saved on tape/dvd?

John

KC Stoever

I myself do not.

Nor can I imagine what entity archived these local WTOP TV shows (Rene's "Everywoman," which aired Saturday night on WTOP, and Rene's daily "good-morning Washington" show--forget the name--Doug Llewellyn and JC Hayward were sidekicks).

Rene's two ca. 1967 appearances with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, I think, are lost forever. But Rene's appearances on the David Susskind Show may still exist, archived I forget where.

This question has come up earlier on cS. I made some phone calls and posted the answers here--perhaps a year or so ago?

Kris

SCE to AUX

do you mind if I try to locate them?

KC Stoever

Not at all.

I remember the thread now. I posted the link to a TV History Museum, based in upstate New York. Mike Douglas shows. David Suskind.

I'll try to find the thread. I remember reacting to one cSer who had adopted a screen name, like Happy, Thrilled, and Proud, based on a joke interview that Rene Carpenter (Primly Stable, wife of astronaut Squarely Stable) first developed with Jo Schirra.

I think this was at the time that ROCKET MAN was coming out.

Tom Wolfe recounts it in THE RIGHT STUFF. In the joke interview, Mrs. Primly Stable declares herself "happy, thrilled, and proud," about her husband's latest accomplishments.

In the above-mentioned thread, I was trying to explain to Happy that Rene was joking. That Rene's joke was a send up of the entire pious industry of the astro-wife interview.

Ruth Tiedemann

I wish the columns she wrote for the Chronicle were available. I clipped them and put them in a scrapbook because the writing style was so exceptional. But we lost the scrapbook in one of our many moves. Those should have been published in a book!

SCE to AUX

OK, thanks Kris. I will pull a string and see what happens. I Think the Grazer/Howard/Hanks team also gave the "Happy, proud & thrilled" thing a little play in Apollo 13

KC Stoever

John, I found the thread, which coincided with the publication of ROCKET MAN and got into something of a critique of FTETTM--Hanks's From the Earth to the Moon--and specifically of Sally Field's misbegotten direction (and star turn) in the Wives episode.http://collectspace.com/ubb/Forum29/HTML/000289.html

The historic films website I mention in that thread--scroll down to my exchange with Happy and a few others--is www.historicfilms.com.

[On edit: looks like this link is broken. I was able to google 'historic films,' however, and was taken straight to a working link.]

Ruth, I've pondered that book project--the pioneering column, relegated to the women's section, but need Rene's help, and she's not much interested. You may want to encourage her when you write?

One thing you may remember is how Rene's column was involved early on in the MIA/POW antiwar movement among especially the wives of Naval aviators. Jim Stockdale had been taken prisoner of war early in the Vietnam war. Stockdale had been an instructor at Patuxent in the mid-50s when the Carpenters were there. Rene and Sybil knew each other.

Sybil Stockdale wrote my mom, after reading one of her columns on the war, begging her to help with an implacable U.S. Navy which, IIRC, would not release address of MIA/POW wives to each other, essentially isolating them on some sort of national security grounds.

Rene wrote repeatedly in her column about the men, and about the Navy wives trying to reach each other by phone or mail. Eventually, a powerful movement took shape. But it started with Rene and Sybil, or so I've been told.

Kris

Ruth Tiedemann

I wrote your Mom and mentioned that I had always wished she, with her special talent, had written a book (preferably fiction since the author can get away with so much more in fiction) about life in the NASA communities during the Gemini and Apollo days. More than enough has been written about the science but I don't know of anything about everyday life -- the mission watches, splashdown parties, etc. Even the wonderful community activities like the theater that Joan Aldrin was so active in or the community chorus that Clare Schweickart loved so much...and so much more. It was a very special slice of life-in-history that has been pretty much lost, unfortunately.

But a collection of those columns would be another way to look into at least one part of that aspect of history -- and a very personal one, too.

There's still a third book in the Rene/Sybil/ Navy wives/MIA story!

At least one of those is likely to hit the top of the NY Times best seller list.

If your Mom writes back, I'll tell her so. ;-)

KC Stoever

Thanks, Ruth. At least one of these book sounds very intriguing to me. Have already sent an email to an editor . . . thanks for the inspiration!

Ruth Tiedemann

Well sure, Kris. I'll only charge the usual 10 - 15% of all royalties in perpetuity. . .;-)

The ‘wives’ story’ (for want of a better phrase) is obviously a part of all good accounts of the US space effort in the 60s and 70s. Some of it seems to me to be better than others – for instance Andrew Chaikin obviously made an effort to talk to some of these ladies.

But I agree with Ruth, a book devoted to the spouses of the astronauts is long overdue – I can’t believe one has never been done (though please correct me if I am wrong!). I am not sure why this is. These days a ‘story’, especially an epic like the US space programme, would seem to have to be covered from every conceivable angle, so the lack of this ‘angle’ (to put it crudely) is very curious.

And I have often thought an account by Rene of her life (not only at this time!) would be fascinating.

Regards to all

Paul, UK

nasamad

I found a short audio file on my hard drive of Mrs Rene Carpenter, talking about being "Happy, Proud, Thrilled ". I think it came from a CD I had (but now cannot find!)

I have placed it in the audio section of my autograph site for those who wish to download it.

That's delightful. Thanks so much for posting it, Adam. Brings back memories of the typically vapid, shallow (and too often thoughtless and intrusive) interviews back then. But they (the interviews) haven't changed all that much, have they!

KC Stoever

Wow. Just now heard the audio. That is Rene's voice indeed, pitched higher and sharper than her usual modulated tones.

She's a satirist by nature, and history gave her an opportunity to observe a number of people and events worthy of satire. Her best weapon, the needle--employed with charm. But definitely deployed with a skill that would surprise her listeners. She looked so sweet, after all.

That's a very nice site, Adam. Thank you for linking it here!

I also listened to the audio from the MA-7 reentry (still fresh in my head from a recent viewing of the Spacecraft Films DVDs on Project Mercury). It's really interesting to me to hear Carpenter's highly trained, exceptionally expressive and vivid voice reporting--yet still hear a real human being, delighted, for example, to see "the main chute is reefed. Reefed is good, and you can hear the satisfaction in the man's voice. Very nice.